|
|
More About Paul
|
![logo - [Paul Houghtaling, bass-baritone]](images/logo2-sm.jpg){kind=logo}
Thanks for visiting my website. My manager and I look forward to
working with you or meeting you after performances. On this page, I thought I'd
tell you a little more about myself, and share a few things that don't usually
make it into my biography. Consider this the "tell me more about yourself"
portion of an interview, or where our conversation might lead at the reception
after the curtain comes down.
Find
more information and photos on my Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/paul.houghtaling
Fall/Winter 2011/2012: It was a good fall, mostly because my students continued to do well. My summer vacation at Disney World seems like just yesterday, but now it’s time for the holidays. I won’t see my family this year for Christmas, but will spend it here in Tuscaloosa with my southern family. My friend and manager Martha Wade was able to visit Alabama for several days. We experienced the Alabama-LSU game together, and my opera students loved singing for her. I cooked my first turkey for Thanksgiving. If I don’t say so myself, it came out pretty well. I’m looking forward to a lot of student successes in the spring, as well as some fun singing and directing work.
Next, my last name. Yup,
it’s a tough one -- not your every-day surname unless, of course, you’re
from upstate New York and even then, it’s pretty rare.
My name -- HOUGHTALING -- pronounced HO-tail-ing, like “wholesaling” -- is a Dutch name meaning money master, or accountant. It’s an old spelling, obviously, with lots of other variations, such as Hooghteling and the later Ellis-Island type shortening Hotaling, but my father’s family has spelled our name this way since the late 18th century. (The Microsoft Word spell check function offers "Hightailing" as a correction for Houghtaling, but that's not an acceptable variation, although I can move fast if I need to.) I’m picky about the spelling and pronunciation of my last name (“Paul” has never been mispronounced, that I know of, anyway). It’s my father’s name.
I have some interesting genealogical material tracing my
father’s lineage to Mathys Coenradsten Houghtaling who came from Holland to
New Netherlands in the early 17th century and settled in Coxsackie,
New York. A few generations later,
my ancestors wound up not far away in Albany, New York where my father was born.
I was born and raised in Troy, New York, essentially across the Hudson River from Albany. That’s where my grandmother on my mother’s side, Ellen Stewart, arrived as a young girl from County Antrim, Ireland, around 1905 and where my Dad, George, met my mother, Jean Henry (daughter of John Henry), square dancing. I don’t square dance, but I did go to the 8th grade dance at P.S. #14 in Troy.
Lots of people who've seen me perform in operetta ask about my twirling. Umbrellas, canes, axes, whatever. It's from Drum Corps. My earliest memories of performing (other than singing "I am the Wee Falorie Man" in first grade with an Irish brogue!) were with the Avant Garde Drum & Bugle Corps from Saratoga Springs, New York. I played all sorts of small-bore brass bugles (piston/rotary and then two-valve) and taught myself how to twirl a rifle. My parents thought it would be a useless skill, especially when I dented their ceilings tossing the thing up in the air, but now people pay me to do it. I get my parents comp tickets, though, to make up for the ceiling dents.
I’m a Yankees fan.
My
father is a Mets fan. We watch
interleague games together by phone. I
wish I had been into baseball as a kid.
I have a cool family. None of them sing, but they all cook, which I don’t. My mother taught me how to clean a kitchen, which remains the only skill I bring to a dinner party.
Below are a few pictures of me and my family. Thanks again. -- Paul
 |
| Me in
Kindergarten (Scroll down to the bottom of this
page to see my friend Jim's attempt to improve this photo through his
newly-acquired Photoshop abilities.)
|
 |
| P.S. # 14, Troy,
NY, Grade 1. I’m on the top
right. If you’re in this picture and you see this, e-mail me, especially if you’re the guy with the bandage. I forgot what that was about. (Click on the picture to see it larger)
|
 |
| My sisters Kathy,
Lori and I circa 1965. I loved that suit. It stopped fitting just last year.
|
|
|
My sisters and me,
2001. My sisters are extraordinary.
|
 |
| My Mom and me with
my niece, Alison in 1986. This is my favorite picture of my mother and me
|
 |
| My Grandmother
Ellen Stewart Henry with my mother and her dog Rover (I didn’t make that up) in 1932, Troy, NY
|
 |
| My father, George
Houghtaling, in the U.S. National Guard, 1952
|
 |
| Kayaking
in Austin, TX, Summer 2005
|
 |
| Still looks like me! |
